Oxoniensia

There is growing though still limited evidence of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic hunter gatherers in the Oxford area. During the Neolithic and early Bronze Age a major ceremonial and funerary complex developed at the confluence of the Thames and the Cherwell. It included an early Neolithic square enclosure, a major Beaker period henge monument and a Bronze-Age linear barrow cemetery aligned on the Neolithic enclosure. Communities probably practised mobile pastoralism until later prehistory when more permanent farms were established in a pattern of settlement that respected the pre-existing ceremonial complex. A possible hillfort at Wytham and a major Iron-Age midden and later temple complex at Woodeaton lie outside Oxford, but there is growing evidence of late-prehistoric activity on other hills within and west of the city as well as on the valley floor. At Port Meadow, middle Iron-Age settlements survive as earthworks set within the living legacy of the grazed grassland in which they were established. This part of the Thames valley was politically pivotal in the later Iron Age, but unlike the oppida and subsequent Roman towns at Dorchester and Abingdon, Oxford remained a relative backwater.

This article reports the results of a survey of the use of stone in domestic buildings in some 140 villages across Oxfordshire (including former north Berkshire). The survey was part of a national English Heritage project and focused on older buildings, mainly of seventeenth- to nineteenth-century date. A dozen key local building stones have been identified and described, and their distribution mapped. Stone buildings characterize villages in most of the county, except in parts of the Vale of White Horse and Chilterns, where half-timbered styles with mainly brick infill are the norm. The mapped distribution of different stone types in relation to the surface geology shows that builders made use of the nearest available outcropping stone, even if its quality was poor. Stone roofing tiles are generally limited to the western and central parts of the county.

2012 saw a number of substantial city centre projects resulting from the expansion of college facilities, and some notable new information resulting from small-scale commercial and domestic development. Provisional summaries are given for selected sites, including: a post-medieval well and a series of cess pits filled with dump deposits at St Andrew's Lane, Headington; medieval pits and late Saxon material at 6-7 High Street; late prehistoric or early Roman features, including a pit with a possible iron-working function, at Oxford Golf Club; a partial profile of the medieval town ditch at 33-35 George Street; post-medieval building remains and earlier features at Worcester College (Kitchen Quad and Pump Quad), Walton Street; part of a burial at 10 Stephen Road, Headington, likely to be associated with a 6th century burial previously identified to the south; evidence for medieval and post-medieval buildings, yards and gardens and a rich assemblage of organic remains within the former Curry's unit in the Clarendon Centre, Shoe Lane; evidence for Iron Age activity at 1 Park Town; medieval and post-medieval buildings, a late Saxon pit, features associated with medieval tenements, and 115 burials associated with the medieval hospital of St John the Baptist at Magdalen College, Longwall Quad; peat and alluvial deposits at the Hinksey Side Weir Fish-Pass on the river Thames; remains of a substantial medieval stone building at Lincoln College, Turl Street; and detailed building recording during the dismantling of the rear of 84 St Aldates. The East Oxford Archaeology and History Project continued to involve large numbers of volunteers in a wide range of events and activities. LD

Makes some broad comments on finds reported across the county in 2012 (some 3,148 objects in total) and presents some of the more notable finds: an item of Bronze Age gold jewellery from Cholsey; a rare Iron Age anthropomorphic handle mount from near Wallingford; a Roman plate brooch from West Hanney; an Anglo-Saxon saucer brooch from Weston-on-the-Green; a medieval scabbard chape from Warborough; and a 19th or 20th century lead alloy toy from Chalgrove. LD

Shakenoak was one of seven Roman villas located within the north Oxfordshire Grim's Ditch, an Iron Age earthwork. The villa's excavators suggested there could have been continued occupation on or near the site from the Roman period until the mid-eighth century '“ it was assumed that twenty-two east-west oriented burials cut into the Roman deposits were of the middle Anglo-Saxon period. However, these have recently been radiocarbon dated and found to be sub-Roman. This much earlier date for the burials makes it necessary to re-examine the rest of the evidence for occupation, especially since almost all of the extensive post-Roman finds came from a poorly stratified ditch. Records of this ditch and its finds are discussed in detail in this article, and a scenario for the cessation of occupation at the site is proposed. It is possible that the ditch itself was dug during the late Anglo-Saxon period in a failed attempt to make a mill leat. There is no real evidence for continued occupation at the site into the eighth century, and occupation probably ceased after the bodies were buried in the fifth century. LD